Week 7 - Death Valley

Salt Flats - Death Valley

Salt Flats - Credit:doi.gov

I chose to visit Salt Flats in Death Valley. This spectacular visitor point is a collection over 200 miles of chloride, sulfates, and carbonates. Water drained from higher elevation and water from rainstorms creates short term lakes and as these lakes dry, the water evaporates and the salt remains.

Examining the salt flats further, I would question; How the salt ridges form on the surface of the flats? and Why is the design of the salt flats constantly changing?. 

What I found was; Salt crystals expand, pushing the crust of salt into rough forms, and newly formed crystals ooze between mudcracks, sketching strange patterns on the surface of the salt flat. Passing rainstorms wash off windblown dust and generate a fresh layer of blinding white salt (NPS, 2015).

Other information that could be gathered is does the force of the rain, sprinkling versus downpour, have an affect as well. Does the force of the water cause some of the changes as well?

**National Park Service. (2015). Salt Flats. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/salt-flats.htm